“You’re going to hate me.”
Anonymous Contributor | San Francisco, CA
OMFG alright. So let me set the stage.
I worked hard to get a management internship with a company I loved and really believed in. I had already done an entry level internship and I wanted to go back.
In 2018, I got the management internship and, even though it wasn't the department I wanted to be in, it was a great foot in the door.
In January 2019, after a grueling, but overall great year, I was offered a full-time position and I was ecstatic! The promotion was at a different location, but still with the same company.
In less than 3 months, I realized it was the BIGGEST mistake I have ever made in my life.
The position, location, department and even the other workers (not just my managers) were disgustingly toxic and borderline abusive.
About 2 months after I got there, we got a new department head. She showed up to the first meeting with us and the very first thing out of her mouth was:
"You're going to hate me, that's alright; everyone hates me."
Everything was already terrible about this place, but I think there was a hope that with new leadership, things would change. Nope. Things got even worse.
No support, no clear direction but still "holding us accountable" which was just her way of blaming leaders for everything. She writes us up, but phrases things so they are juuust north of full-out lies. For example, I was written up and it said I "asked too many questions and do not listen to the answer," she then described a specific situation, but her idea of "answering" wasn't an actual answer. We had changed to a new system on my day off and I wasn't provided with anything on the new system, so I did not know you had to change one thing in the system. There were 3 options, "clean, vacant clean, and inspected."
With the new change, we had to designate certain people as "inspected" when previously it had been "vacant clean." This one thing legit caused so many problems at first, because we had to manually change everyone.
Anyway, I was not provided any information when I came back and when I asked my director what exactly I needed to designate, she wouldn't give me a straight answer. Kept telling me to email so-and-so (who I wouldn't get a response from for several days) and wouldn't give me an answer!
I now realize it is because she didn’t know. Which would have been fine if she had just admitted it. This happens constantly. Inability to admit to not knowing something is a fatal flag that I see constantly in older leaders. They think admitting they don't know something is the worst thing possible, but it isn't.
I feel like more and more people are stressing that interviews are a two-way street. The interviewer is trying to get to know you, but you should also be trying to get to know them.
After having this experience of such a terrible boss, I will 100% ask more discovery questions during the interview. As a leader, I want to know what my leader expects of me i.e. what are the expectations for overtime, etc.